Life is a cabaret with Karen!
Kerry Bailey talks to Karen Beren-Guiu, Events Organiser for the Friends of the Beck Theatre in Middlesex, about how her love of the stage has led to 18 years of organising events, day trips and overseas breaks for groups.
In 1989, Karen Beren-Guiu was working as a voluntary usher at the Beck Theatre in Hayes, Middlesex. She explains, “I worked full-time during the day as an Advanced Driving Instructor but – because I absolutely adore the theatre – I volunteered my services as an occasional evening usher at the local Beck Theatre. Although there was no remuneration, we were given vouchers, which meant we could watch most of the shows for free.”
She continues, “Both of my parents were trained singers and had spent their lives on the stage. I had done my fair share of acting too, but it was wonderful to work for my local professional theatre and to get really involved.”
The Theatre’s management soon picked up on Karen’s enthusiasm and passion for all things theatrical and approached her with the idea of setting up the Friends of the Beck Theatre group. “I was asked whether I would be interested in becoming the Events Organiser for the group if we could get enough people interested. It was another voluntary position but I was so excited and jumped at the chance.”
A few days later, following an advert in the local paper, more than 150 people walked through the doors of the Beck Theatre to enrol and Karen found herself quickly thrust into the spotlight!
Learning the lines
Today, just over 18 years on, the Friends of the Beck Theatre has 400 members, mostly recruited by word of mouth, who each pay a yearly membership fee of £8 and are exclusively entitled to all of the events and trips that Karen arranges. The membership fee goes towards the photocopying and posting of the bi-monthly newsletter that Karen writes, as well as purchases such as tea and coffee for the group’s Annual General Meeting, which is held at the Beck Theatre every November.
“All of the ideas and organising for the trips is done by me and I try to have at least three or four trips taking place every month,” explains Karen. “I also arrange occasional events to take place at the Beck such as charades evenings. There is a committee of 11 people who help with the administration. For example, one of the committee deals with the paperwork for new members whilst another acts as treasurer and so on.”
“Having other people to rely on for the admin – and organising the money especially – is a great help,” she laughs. “I remember when I first started out, I once had £150 in cash on my coffee table, which I had collected from members for a forthcoming trip.” She cringes as she continues, “I also had a new puppy in the house and when I returned to the living room from making a cup of coffee in the kitchen, the money had disappeared from the table. All that remained was a very guilty looking puppy. I think my heart actually stopped at that point!”
Treading the boards
Karen absolutely brims with excitement when she tells me about theatre productions that the group has enjoyed together.
“Organising theatre trips is the best part of my job,” she enthuses. “It’s wonderful to be able to share masterpieces and classics on the stage with people who, if not for you organising the trip, may never have seen them.” She giggles, “I’ve seen lots of the productions many times now and so I often find myself watching the awed expressions of my group in the audience rather than the actual performance. I can’t express how it makes me feel to see my members as happy as they are when they’re at a show.”
She tends to use the services of coach operator Jason Tours, based in Hounslow, for transport to and from the theatre and on day trips and weekend breaks. “Jason Tours is excellent. I always take exactly 28 people on each theatre trip so that we can hire a coach that size and we’re always picked up from the Beck Theatre – usually for early evening performances – so the company knows us inside out. On the occasions that we watch shows at the Beck Theatre, however, we all just meet at the venue.”
For West End theatre tickets, meanwhile, Karen likes to use several ticketing agencies and fluctuates between two companies in particular when negotiating good deals. “Good seats are far more important to me than good prices,” she insists. “For this reason, I never book block seating and prefer to have group members scattered around the theatre in the best seats possible. I choose the ticketing agency by the seats it can offer me.”
She continues, “Now, have you seen the Sound of Music yet? You absolutely must see it! I pre-booked 28 tickets months before it opened with See, the fantastic ticketing agency based in London. Not only were we offered tickets for the night after the press showing in November at the London Palladium, but I was extremely impressed with the seats that the company was able to offer me and I loved the service, which was very personal. The show was truly fabulous, the sets were lovely and the Von Trapp children were adorable. We came out of the show really buzzing and sang the whole way home!”
Another show enjoyed by a group of 28 at the London Palladium in July of last year was Sinatra. “Again, I booked tickets with See and got excellent seats. The show celebrates the life and career of ‘old blue eyes’ himself and I would definitely recommend other groups to see it if they get the chance.”
Karen also regularly books theatre tickets through Delfont Mackintosh Groups in London. She comments, “Because Delfont represents all of Cameron Mackintosh’s own theatres, you can get some really superb deals and excellent seats. Everyone that you deal with in the office is very friendly too, which counts for a lot in my book.”
A particular favourite with Karen is Les Miserables and she has taken several groups to see it at the Queens Theatre in London. “Time and time again, Delfont provides wonderful seats for this show,” she says. “I find myself caught up in the passion and drama every time I see it and my members are always thrilled with the whole production.”
“A must-see for everyone, however, is The Phantom of the Opera. It is, quite honestly, the most breathtaking production you will ever see, it’s superb! And it doesn’t matter how many times you see Phantom, it’s always fantastic. I could go every week! I always book with Delfont for this.”
Excursion ideas
“When I first started doing this job, the programme of events consisted of theatre, theatre and more theatre,” begins Karen. “Eventually though, a good few years ago, I started to receive GTO magazine and decided to attend its annual Excursions show in London. There were so many exhibitors there and I met and talked to loads of people from various visitor attractions. I decided, there and then, to start adding day trips into the mix. The show was great and I left with so many contacts, lots of literature and plenty of ideas!”
And once she had started, there was no stopping Karen, with her day trips and outings ranging from ghost walks to military air shows.
“My group just loves air shows and I arrange a trip to one every year. In my opinion, the best is the Royal International Air Tattoo at the RAF base in Fairford, Gloucestershire. It’s usually held in July so I book the tickets direct with the show’s groups department early in the year. It makes a great day out!”
Karen also tries to include a horse racing trip once a year. “Ascot Racecourse in Berkshire is our favourite venue for this and we’ve been many times.”
A visit to Leeds Castle in Kent last June was another trip that 48 members particularly enjoyed. “Leeds Castle is beautiful and full of history,” says Karen. “I pre-booked our visit to coincide with the Jousting Weekend in June and it was fantastic. Knights on horseback, dramatic battle scenes, certainly one to remember!”
The previous May, meanwhile, saw Karen accompany 46 people to Penshurst Place and Gardens in Kent. “We attended the ICHF Weald of Kent Craft Show and really enjoyed ourselves,” she comments. “There was so much to see and do at the show, it kept us entertained for hours. The beautiful setting of Penshurst made it all the more enjoyable.”
“I’m also a big fan of the sightseeing company London Walks,” she tells me. “In December, 25 of us enjoyed an ‘Alleyways and Shadows Ghost Walk’ with the company in London. It was very chilling and we were very lucky to have Richard Jones leading us, who is a ghost expert and regularly appears on TV’s ‘Most Haunted’.”
Also in London, the previous August, Karen purchased 42 ‘Royal Day Out’ tickets from the Royal Collection, the organisation that oversees a collection of royal residences in the UK. “The ticket allowed combined entry to Buckingham Palace, The Royal Mews – where the royal transportation is kept – and The Queen’s Gallery in London. I think the ticket is a really superb idea and we had such a wonderful time. A real highlight was seeing the portrait of the Queen by Rolf Harris in The Queen’s Gallery.”
Karen occasionally likes to take a break from organising and enlists the help of the London-based guided tour provider City and Village Tours. “I can’t speak highly enough of City and Village Tours,” she enthuses. “The staff are lovely and the company provides a very informative booklet detailing all of its tours. If I request any changes to tours though, the staff are very flexible and happy to comply.”
One tour organised by City and Village Tours that was particularly successful was the ‘Legal London Tour’ in April, on which Karen accompanied 48 people. “We visited locations such as the Elizabethan Middle Temple Hall in East London, where barristers dine, and the Royal Courts of Justice at The Strand, which is on the news most nights! It was one of my all-time favourite days out, outstanding and worthwhile.”
Breaking away
Karen also includes a regular dose of UK weekend breaks in her programme, for which she does all of the organising herself.
A break that was especially well received was a two-night stay in Brighton for 48 people recently. “We travelled down to Sussex with Jason Tours, as always, and spent the afternoon in the quaint little town of Lewes before travelling on to nearby Brighton and checking in at the Royal Albion Hotel,” Karen tells me. “The Hotel is located opposite the Pier and we were all allocated sea facing rooms so I was very impressed. It also made an ideal base for sightseeing as it was very central.”
She continues, “On the following day we enjoyed all of the delights on the Pier including the ghost train, which had changed a fair bit since the last time I was there! At one point, it looked as though the cars on the train were going to launch right into the sea, scaring lots of the members silly and causing plenty of screams! We also went to the Sea Life Centre, near the Pier, which we all absolutely loved. It was so mystical, walking under the transparent tunnels and seeing the sharks above you!”
“The next day, we made a lovely pre-booked stop at Borde Hill Gardens near Haywards Heath on the way home. Even though it was pouring with rain we all enjoyed wandering around the 150 acres of beautiful gardens.”
Although a trip later on in the year, in July, wasn’t snapped up by quite as many members, Karen still went ahead with the break and ended up driving a minibus to the Isle of Wight. “Usually the weekend breaks are booked up really quickly,” she says. “With this two-nighter on the Isle of Wight, however, I only received 14 booking forms. I didn’t want to let the people that had booked down so – rather than taking a big empty coach -I hired a minibus and drove myself. We all had a blast, staying at the Carlton Hotel in Sandown, which was lovely, and visiting places such as Alum Bay, Godshill and Carisbrooke Castle.”
Foreign adventures
Over the years, Karen has travelled extensively with her group visiting locations such as Italy, New York, Holland and France.
“I always used the services of tour operator Bob Cole Travel in Kent for my overseas breaks but, since the company’s demise, I have followed one of its staff members – Tony – to the Wiltshire-based tour operator Success Tours.”
She continues, “My first break that was organised by Success took place last month when we spent four days in Austria. We had an early flight from Stanstead, which meant we arrived in Salzburg at around 10am. For our arrival, Success had arranged a really great two-hour guided tour of the city for us. Afterwards we enjoyed a couple of hours of free time before checking in at the absolutely fantastic Seerose Hotel, which overlooks Lake Fuschl in Fuschl am See. A real highlight was later that night when we enjoyed an evening guided tour of the village, complete with lanterns! We did lots of exploring in the surrounding areas on the following couple of days and on the day before we left it snowed, transforming the lake into a really magical wintry scene. The break was – wow!”
For the future
Further ahead, Karen is planning a three-day break to the Italian Riviera with the Wiltshire-based tour operator Success Tours in June. Karen says, “I’m really looking forward to this trip as I get on very well with the staff at Success. We get all meals and drinks included too!”
The group will also be enjoying another showing of the Sound of Music in July. “Because there was so much interest in the show the first time around, I have booked more tickets with See to enable those who missed out last November a chance to see it. I’ve heard that Connie Fisher has signed up for another six months so she should still be playing Maria!”
In December, meanwhile, Karen has managed to secure tickets to the long awaited ‘Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs’ exhibition, which is going to be held at The 02 – the former Millennium Dome – in Greenwich. “I pre-booked the tickets as part of a package that is offered by City and Village Tours in London. After we have been to the exhibition, City and Village Tours has organised a cruise of the River Thames for us. We’re really looking forward to it.”
When asked what her hopes for the future of the Friends of the Beck Theatre are, Karen pauses for a moment. “I just want to continue making people happy,” she says finally. “There’s nothing better than having your members telling you how much they have enjoyed themselves or how much of a difference the group makes to their lives. It makes something in my heart jump with happiness. Yes, I just hope I can keep that up.”